LUMC Christmas Program

Alyvia participated in the Christmas program at Laura church today.  She goes to "youf group" every Wednesday with Reagan and Rylie at Laura.  I had to work so I didn't get to see her, but daddy took some pictures.  Daddy said she did a pretty good job!

Alyvia

Reagan

Alyvia & Reagan singing

I can't wait to see her in our church's Christmas program next weekend!

Welcome home

Alyvia made me a present while I was at work today.  This is what I found under my pillow at bedtime tonight

What a happy surprise from my sweet girl-love her! 

Waaaay Behind!

I haven't blogged in almost 3 weeks-ahhhhh!!!!  We have been incredibly busy and I have been too tired (read "lazy") to blog after we put the kids to bed.  BUT, I'm going to try my best to go back and catch up on what we've been up to!  I'm going to go easy on myself and start with tonight :) 

Happy early 60th birthday to my dad!

My mom planned a surprise birthday party for him at Double A's pizza tonight.

Livi and Cole were excited to surprise Papa!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mmmmm, chocolate milk

Helping Papa open presents

Stealing Papa's presents

Mmmm, blue tongue from blue frosting!

We had food and drinks and celebrated with our family and friends, good times!

Caught red handed!

This was sitting on the kitchen counter today

This is what I found when I turned my back to wash some dishes

What a sneaky little boy!

The Final Touch

We got our Christmas tree Wednesday night (we are a real tree kind of family) and we finally decorated it this afternoon.  We waited until Colson took a nap because we thought he might "help" a little too much!  Alyvia was super excited to get all of our ornaments out put them on the tree.  She picked colored lights for the tree this year ( I prefer white lights, but Alyvia is the deciding vote in our house!).  Alyvia and Daddy always put the angel on top of the tree together-it's our little tradition. 

The finished product...

It's nothing terribly special decorations wise, but its full of special memories for us.  No ribbon, no matching colors, no theme-but it radiates the Christmas spirit in our home.  Our tree is full of ornaments that our family has been given throughout the years and below it is a tree skirt given as a wedding gift to Alan and I.  To me, it's the most beautiful Christmas tree around. 

Family Christmas Picture

For the past couple of years, my in-laws have sent a  Christmas card with a big family picture on it.  Our numbers are getting up there-16 people in our immediate family!  I don't have a copy of the picture that made the cut, but it didn't turn out too bad!  We got some shots of the kids after the whole fam.  6 kids from 6 months to 4 1/2 years-love that they are close in age!

Cutie- PaTooties!

Dum-Dum suckers made everybody happier!

Festivities with Friends!

Today we went to Shad and Jonna's house for our annual holiday get together.  I love how close in age all the kids are, it makes things so much easier.  And I know I've said it before, but these girls just pick up wherever they left off and I love that!

Addy, Alyvia, Evie

The girls played GREAT the whole time, which makes it possible to actually have some adult conversation with friends!  Alan and I even got a picture by ourselves!

The boys are still at the stage when they would rather play by themselves, not together, but they did play near each other.  I think in the next 2 years they will be running all over together too!

Colson and Austen passing each other

Me and my boy!

We had yummy snacks, pizza for dinner and way too much dessert!  We do a gift exchange for the kids and the girls were super excited!

Alyvia and Addy

Colson is learning to rip open gifts too!

We even got the boys to get in on the picture fun this year!

ALSO, this year was special because we got to meet Caroline's boyfriend, Jim!  He is a very nice guy-Alan actually knows him a little through farming (go figure).  We approve!

I so wish we all lived close to each other and could do this once a month instead of twice a year :(  I love that 10 years after we graduated, we're still friends!

See you in a couple months girls-can't wait!!